With 30 years of expertise in the supply chain for maize and wheat, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients (LCI) leads the market in baby food ingredients, meeting 70% of European needs for maize flours and providing five of the six major food industries present in the market.
“The number of maize players able to produce baby food quality is very limited and we are well positioned here,” says Dr Walter Lopez of LCI (Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients). “Also the main cereal used in baby food is wheat – more than rice or maize – and our wheat mill activity has great potential.”
LCI are also involved in the market for functional flours. Some infant baby food manufacturers still use additives like modified corn starch to thicken baby food but, to improve their image, they are now seeking to replace these. LCI’s functional flours can be substituted for modified starches, after adapting recipes because their properties are not quite identical.
Within 24 months, a baby’s diet evolves from mother’s milk to a full varied diet. As this period is extremely sensitive, the European Union has established strict regulations for baby foods with stringent requirements in terms of factors such as mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticides and gluten.
This is an area where LCI has a distinct competitive advantage, explains Dr Lopez: “As a farmer-owned cooperative, we can reassure our customers with full traceability because we control every link in the food chain - from field production by our members to processing. We are audited regularly, with analyses conducted on products and also on the infrastructure at each stage of manufacturing, from the plant to the flour.”
This can be seen in the three types of flours LCI provides to the baby food market:
1. Native maize and wheat flours from where the grains are grown in the Auvergne, France by Limagrain cooperative farmer members - then stored and crushed by the group’s mills located nearby.
2. Functional flours that are produced on LCI’s Arques site, northern France. After a hydrothermal treatment that gives them similar properties to modified starch, they are used to thicken portions of baby food.
3. Soluble cereal flours for incorporation in dairy drinks.
